Pantoum Published on The Racket (Patreon)

I did a reading for a quarantine literary series last month, and given I was limited to just five minutes of reading, I didn't publicize- it seemed like the sort of thing that I'd just get lost in the crowd. But then the lit magazine who co-sponsored the reading reached out to me afterwards and asked me to submit something to their publication. I offered them a couple of things and also to record a video reading of whichever poem them chose, and today you can see that over at The Racket.

A pantoum is a repetitive, contemplative form that takes significant effort to make unfold in an interesting way. Pantoums repeat the last word of each line in a prescribed order, but I was never one to do things simply. As in my favorite pantoums, every line exists in the poem twice. In really phenomenal pantoums, the ritual reveals different meaning in each use of a line. Hopefully I've done something like that.

The inspiration for this poem draws on my childhood- every morning we'd tell the previous night's dreams at the breakfast table. Add to that some interesting familial sleep issues, and the poem gives that haunted feeling of recounting half-remembered dreams.

You can see the video of my reading here.